04. October 2018
// Care Worldwide
It's just before noon on a Tuesday in July when our Area Sales Manager arrives at Brisbane Airport after approximately 20 hours of plane travel. He is already expected there by Clive Field, Managing Director of the Australian Stiegelmeyer partner Evocare. Evocare is a distributor and provider of medical equipment for hospitals and care facilities, as well as lifestyle and mobility equipment including rehabilitation products. The company was founded in 1978. Since then, it has continuously expanded its portfolio with many products and services. Since 2012, the company also distributes Stiegelmeyer and Burmeier products in Australia.
From the airport, our Area Sales Manager and Clive Field head directly to Evocare headquarters in Enoggera, a suburb of Brisbane. More employees are already waiting there to discuss various issues with the Stiegelmeyer expert. Over the next five days, our Area Sales Manager, accompanied by an Evocare Account Manager, visits five care facilities in and around Brisbane. The Libra seems to be particularly popular there – a nursing bed specially developed for the export market. Four of the five facilities visited have purchased this Stiegelmeyer model through Evocare in recent years.
The idyllic suburb of Newstead, just off the Brisbane River, is home to Aveo Newstead, a 5-star facility for Independent Living. From the penthouse apartments on the 19th and 20th floor you can enjoy a breathtaking view over Brisbane – especially at night. But even residents who do not get to enjoy a penthouse can feel at ease in their comfortably furnished rooms with Libra beds and matching bedside cabinets.
At Carinity House Cedarbrook, in the Gold Coast hinterland, about an hour south of Brisbane, residents will also find Libra beds in a welcoming light wood tone. Back in the Greater Brisbane area, the Stiegelmeyer-Evocare team had the opportunity to speak with the facility manager of the Carinity Clifford House about the current situation in Australia. In the field of nursing there is strong competition between the institutions. There are more and more nursing homes added that offer attractive rooms and conditions. Therefore, many older homes face the challenge of renewing their furniture and care beds in order to keep up. At the end of June 2017, Australia had 2,672 nursing homes.
In addition to the actual care, the attractiveness and the feel-good factor of a care facility play an important role in the well-being of the residents. According to a survey carried out by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare on 30 June 2017, 47% of people living in long-term care facilities suffer from depression. As in many other countries, demographic change is leading to an increase in the need for care places. In Australia, the number of places increased by about 10% between 2011 and 2017 to almost 201,000. On average, people spend 2.5 years in long-term care there. The Libra helps to make this time as comfortable as possible.
Source: gen-agedcaredata.gov.au
